Tuesday, October 24, 2006

At the time of this writing, the current government is involved in coalition negotiations.This is a constant of Israeli politics and is viewed cynically by the public. We deserve better than the governments that emerge from the usual "horse-trading" that goes on in smoke-filled rooms far from our sight. Yes, we deserve better. I did this cartoon in 1997. It hangs on my wall and never fails to get a laugh.

Most Drybones cartoons have no backgrounds, but in this one I wanted a feeling of Mr. Shuldig "speaking for the people" so I drew a typical Israeli cityscape in the background behind him.On the left side of each background is a typical Israeli residential building, complete with box-like balconies and an old TV antenna on its roof. To the right of our hero we can see a tall, lovely palm tree, but the sure sign that this is an Israeli city is the black box leaning back on the roof of the building just to the left of Mr. Shuldig. Another of these black boxes is on the roof of the building to the extreme right (hard to see 'cause it's cropped by the right edge of the cartoon). These are Israeli solar energy rooftop hot water heaters! And they are everywhere!

We have strong legislation promoting the use of solar energy. The law requires all apartment buildings, hotels, hospitals and schools to install these solar water heating rooftop devices. Inside each, A black pipe snakes around behind a class window to bring us our hot water (after it's been pre-heated by the rays of the sun). In the photo below you can see two such rooftop solar heaters. Next to each is a cylindrical water tank.